The creatives keeping Japan's inspiring artisan culture alive

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In Japan, craftsmanship is celebrated, with artisanal skills being passed down generations. Meet the masters and apprentices keeping these traditions alive.

Megumi Bennett, bonsai gardener

Megumi Bennett brings 40 years of knowledge to the beauty of Bonsai.

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At her tranquil nursery in Sydney’s Terrey Hills, Megumi Bennett teaches and practices two of Japan’s most ancient arts: Ikebana (flower arrangement) and bonsai, the cultivation of miniature trees in the style of their full-grown counterparts.

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Watching Megumi, one of the most highly credited bonsai instructors outside Japan, snipping delicately at the leaves of one of her exquisite little trees is to witness a tradition unchanged for over two thousand years.

“When I am working I feel as if I don’t exist,” says Megumi. “All thought ceases and there is just the tree and me. I am deeply calm, silent. My mind is still. Maybe I’m in the world of Zen.”

She’s been practicing for more than 40 years after studying Ikebana from five years old in her birth city Tokyo, following in the footsteps of her mother, an Ikebana teacher. As a child, she also watched her grandfather tending his bonsai trees, and observed the patience and precision required to nurture the unique plants, which can take decades to reach their ultimate shape and ideally outlive their gardeners to be passed on through generations.

Later, she studied with the late, revered fifth-generation bonsai master Saburo Kato. He taught her the fundamental principle of Bonsai: first, the roots. “The roots are like the human heart,” Megumi says. “When you plant and grow, you are the heart surgeon.”

Since arriving in Australia in 1974, Megumi has established a strong bonsai culture here. She founded the Bonsai Society of Sydney in 1999, and introduced her son, Alex to the art.

Teaching is integral to bonsai tradition, says Megumi. “I love to share the happiness, pleasure, sadness and peaceful mind of this craft. And I never stop learning myself.

“As long as trees, plants, flowers and grasses grown on this earth, the bonsai and ikebana culture will never die.”

Midori Furze, origami artist

Globally recognised Origami artist Midori Furze.

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Born in Nagoya, Japan, Midori Furze was immersed in traditional culture from an early age. “My mother taught Koto, the traditional Japanese musical instrument, and I started playing it when I was a little girl,” she says.

Other members of her artistic family practiced calligraphy, the tea ceremony, flower arranging, noh dancing and other traditional musical instruments, such as shamisen and shakuhachi.

“I don’t remember when I first folded paper, or what I made,” says Midori. “I was one of many children in Japan who started origami when we were very young.

“Many Japanese people play with chopstick covers and candy wrapping paper to fold paper cranes,” she adds. “When you hear about close friends or family members being sick, we make one thousand cranes to pray for their speedy recovery.”

By the time Midori immigrated to Australia, her chosen medium was oils in a Western style. Then one day a kangaroo hopped past her studio beside Sydney’s Ku-ring-gai National Park. Inspired, Midori folded a little origami ‘roo.

“It was a turning point. In that moment, I realised that being myself is my strength.”

Midori began to work extensively in origami, and also started incorporating traditional Japanese stories and traditions into her painting.

Her origami creations now range from wearable jewellery to framed compositions and standing sculptural pieces. She has collected multiple awards and exhibits around the world.

Junko Azukawa, calligraphy artist

Junko Azukawa keeping the tradition of calligraphy alive.

Photo: Supplied.

To five-year-old Junko Azukawa, studying traditional Japanese calligraphy (Shodo) meant monotony. Her twice-weekly lessons in her hometown Toyama, at the foot of the Japanese Alps, consisted of “nothing but lines, lines and more lines,” recalls the Melbourne-based artist.

Now a calligraphy teacher herself, she understands the need for discipline and precision. “My teacher was looking at my posture, how I moved my arms...”

The practice eventually evolves into a flowing symbiosis between the artist, the brush, the ink and the paper. “The line becomes you,” Junko says. “And it happens without thought or effort.”

Junko studied with one of Japan’s most respected calligraphy masters, Shiro Aoyagi, and his encouragement kept her honing the skill throughout her childhood and teens.

When Junko moved to Australia in 2005, she felt a longing for her art. “I realised hadn’t held my brush for years.”

Simply picking up her calligraphy tools filled her with peace.

“It feels very stabilising,” she says. “As soon as I hold the brush and grind the ink with the stick and water, that process of preparation alone is so grounding. Your busy mind becomes still, free from judgement, expectation or pressure.”

She started teaching small calligraphy classes in her spare room, and as her reputation grew, she received commissions and invitations to exhibit. She’s shown her work across Australia and has art displayed in the National Gallery Victoria.

For Junko, success is secondary to calligraphy’s spiritual foundations. “When I have more commission work I am physically busier, but calmer in my mind. I love this feeling.”

Yoshifusa Nakazawa, Grand Seiko master watchmaker

Yoshifusa Nakazawa hard at work on the hands of time.

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At the Shinshu Watch Studio, in Japan’s Shiojiri, Nagano Prefecture, greatness resides in the tiniest things.

Here, in the Micro Artist Studio, master watchmaker Yoshifusa Nakazawa leads the team that hand assembles and hand finishes Grand Seiko Spring Drive watches. Each timepiece contains some 200 microscopic components, with tolerances as small as 1/1,000th of a millimetre, the micro engineering skills and knowledge required to bring these into perfect harmony are formidable and take years to acquire.

“Each individual part must be beautiful,” Nakazawa says. “The most important thing in making a watch is to make it the most beautiful.”

He says: “I’ve made small things since I was a child. For example, folding paper cranes with 5mm paper. Even though such precise things are very tiny, the size of the parts that can be drawn in my mind are very large.”

Like bonsai, calligraphy and origami practitioners, Nakazawa feels at one with nature when he works. “I think it is very Japanese to associate quiet things to the way things move in nature. I feel as if we are all alive, living together with nature. It’s like being able to feel the natural slow flow of time.”

Grand Seiko, precision through proprietary technology.

Grand Seiko was released on December 18, 1960. This was the beginning of the Grand Seiko quest for creating the perfect watch.

By the late 1960s, Grand Seiko mechanical movements had achieved new standards of precision and accuracy.

Grand Seiko continues pursuing the highest standards in watchmaking. This has led to revolutionary innovations such as the Spring Drive movement, engineering breakthroughs in quartz watch technology, and ever greater refinement through advances such as finishing techniques.

Grand Seiko has been, and always will be, a true manufacturer, committed to designing, making and assembling each component of every watch in their own facilities and with their own watchmakers. https://www.grand-seiko.com/au-en/